39 years ago in 1974, the Government of
Tanzania, through its Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and through Government
Notice No. 269 and in line with its now world-renowned and acclaimed
Conservation Policy and in accordance with the historical Policy position that
all Land is a National Resource, declared through Government Gazette that 4,000
square kilometers in the Loliondo Area in Arusha Region would be re-classified
as Loliondo Game Controlled Area for purely wildlife protection.
Effectively, this made Loliondo Game
Controlled Area part of the Tanzania’s
Protected Area (PA) Network which covers 24 percent of the country’s total land
surface. This is one of the highest commitments to wildlife protection anywhere
in the world and as mentioned above was made consciously for protection of
wildlife and for the benefit of all human kind.
Tanzania’s Protected Area
Network includes all the 15 National Parks (NP) and Ngorongoro Conservation
Area (NCA), both of which are set aside specifically for non-consumptive use of
wildlife resources, 28 Game Reserves (GRs) and 44 Game Controlled Areas (GCAs)
of which Loliondo GCA is one of them.
Game Reserves and Game
Controlled Areas are for consumptive utilization of wildlife such as sport
hunting. However, Section 17 of the Wildlife Conservation Act No. 5 of 2009
restricts human activities such as settlements and livestock grazing in these
areas.
However, as population
has increased and pressures on land have grown greater in recent years in the
surrounding areas, the Government has felt it necessary and recognized its primary
responsibility of providing land for people in this area, most of whom are
landless and whose lives are therefore highly vulnerable.
It was in recognition
of this situation and in meeting its primary responsibilities that the
Government of Tanzania recently made a decision to de-gazette 2,500 square kilometers
of land, out of the gazetted 4,000 square kilometers, to allow local
inhabitants of Loliondo area to freely utilize that land for their own community
development.
It was also decided
that the remaining 1,500 square kilometers of land be retained as Game
Controlled Area for continued protection of the wildlife and the environment
for the benefit of the present and future generations of humankind.
The Government took
this decision with the understanding that environment conservation is as important
for eco-system protection as it is for community livelihood and community
development.
On 26th of
March, this year, therefore, Hon. Khamis Sued Kagasheki, Minister for Natural
Resources and Tourism, using powers invested into him under Wildlife
Conservation Act No. 5 of 2009, Section 16 (4) announced this Government
position partly also as effort by Government to resolve a land use conflict that
has existed in Loliondo Game Controlled Area for the past 20 years.
In his announcement,
the Minister made it clear that the Government took that decision to provide
land to the growing landless population in the area.
In announcing the
Government decision, Minister Kagasheki emphasized powers given to him by law
to review Game Controlled Areas for the purpose of ascertaining continuation of
control of such areas bearing in mind that the1,500 square kilometres retained
by Government are significantly important to the entire Serengeti and
Ngorongoro ecosystem.
Among other reasons,
these 1,500 square kilometers are a crucial breeding area for wildlife, a
corridor for iconic great migration of wildlife in particular for millions of
wildebeest and a critical water catchment area.
It is therefore a gross
and indeed a malicious misrepresentation of facts for a section of people both
in and outside of Loliondo Game Controlled Area to claim that the Government of
Tanzania was grabbing land from the Loliondo local communities. Who is grabbing
land from whom?
First, these people
have been living in the area illegally for many years because this land was
never allocated to them under any Government arrangement. However, for very
compassionate reasons the Government has allowed them to continue living there
for all these years. Second, this land has always remained Government land
throughout all those years.
The conceivable logic
here is that the Government of Tanzania has made unique history of
land-grabbing from itself to provide for its citizens in this case. This is a
very laudable action and not something for which the Government of Tanzania
should take all the bashing which has gone viral on social networks.
What the Government of
Tanzania has now done is in fact to provide 62.7 percent of this land of the
Loliondo Game Controlled Area to local communities for present and future use
and out of Government realization of its responsibilities to provide for its
citizens. Surely, no Government in world can be blamed for meeting its
responsibilities to such high levels.
Issued
by:
Ministry
of Natural Resources and Tourism
DAR ES SALAAM
8th
April, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment